


Compound Word Situation

by CatrinaSL



Series: Three Things [131]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alcohol, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Implied Sexual Content, Kissing, SHIP DARCY LEWIS WITH ALL THE THINGS, Sharing Clothes, Sharing a Bed, Suggestive Themes, Three Things, Waffles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-05 16:52:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14048625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatrinaSL/pseuds/CatrinaSL
Summary: Darcy is a girl, and she's Scott's friend, but it's definitely not a compound word situation. Not at all.





	Compound Word Situation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Beth_TauriChick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_TauriChick/gifts).



> Beth_TauriChick prompted bunny, beer, basket.
> 
> many thanks to SerialObsessor (ibelieveinturtles) for her beta skills!

"You know, I have to say," Maggie began, as she sidled in next to Scott. "I like your girlfriend."

Scott didn't reply, but his eyebrows went up in surprise. 

"The basket she brought for Cassie is great, she picked out the bunny—and I know Cassie loved the one you got her for her last birthday but you have to admit it's kind of the worst—she helped Paxton out in the kitchen with the food, and Cassie loves her, look."

Scott did look. Cassie was holding up a brightly colored plastic egg in triumph. As he watched, Darcy leaned closer to his daughter to see what was inside, then tipped her head back and laughed.

Paxton went in for a look, then turned away in disgust, laughing less delightedly as he escorted Cassie inside to wash her hands. 

Darcy joined Scott and Maggie, positioning herself close so that Scott could put an arm around her, were he so inclined.

Just like a fake girlfriend should. 

Because the thing was, Darcy wasn't Scott's girlfriend. She was a girl and she was his friend, but it wasn't a compound word situation.

"She ate the candy out of it and decided to repurpose it as a miniature ant farm," Darcy reported. "It was full of dirt and bugs; did you  _ see _ Paxton's  _ face _ ?"

She didn't even have to be there, but when she overheard Scott complaining about his ex nagging him to take care of himself, she had stepped up. She picked out a new outfit for him and several gifts for his daughter, then flew across the country with him to go to lunch at his ex-wife's new house.

And it worked like a charm. Their story was false, but Maggie had already said he looked like a new man.

He had new pants. That was all.

And Darcy. 

"Would anyone like a glass of wine with dessert?" Maggie asked.

"Sure," Darcy said, even though she hated wine. She sure was taking one for the team—for him. "Scott, did you want one of those beers we brought?"

"Yeah, thanks," he replied, and moved to go in and get it himself. 

"Stay," Darcy said, with a wave of her hand. "I'll bring it out."

Maggie gave Scott a look as Darcy disappeared inside. "Don't screw this up," she advised him. 

There was nothing to screw up, so he just smiled and said, "I don't intend to."

* * *

That night they went out to dinner with his friends.

 

Kurt told Darcy she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and if she ever wanted a better man than Scott, she should look him up.

 

"She's not  _ actually _ my girlfriend; that was just for Maggie," Scott said.

 

"I mean, we are  _ friends _ ," Darcy added.

 

"It's just not a compound word situation," Scott finished.

 

So Dave asked Darcy to marry him.

 

Luis asked her twice.

  
  


"Sorry about them," Scott apologized for the eighteenth time.

 

Darcy laughed as she unlocked the door to their hotel room. "I told you: it's fine. I'm still considering Luis' proposal, actually. Breakfast in bed every day for the rest of my life sounds good.  _ Waffles _ , Scott."

 

He grinned and shook his head, entering the room behind her and setting his bag on the floor inside the closet.

 

"I am  _ so _ ready for bed," Darcy said, falling onto the bed with a sigh. "Today was long."

 

"And we have to go back tomorrow," Scott reminded her.

 

Darcy groaned. 

 

Scott swung Darcy's bag off his shoulder to set it on the dresser next to the TV and noticed something.

 

"Why is there only one bed?"

 

Darcy sat up. "Why  _ is _ there only one bed?"

 

They looked at each other.

 

"We're adults, right?" Darcy said.

 

"Sure," Scott agreed. "We can share a bed."

 

Darcy nodded. Scott nodded too.

 

"Or I could sleep on the floor."

 

Darcy laughed. "Don't be stupid. I'm getting in the shower. No sexy pay-per view, okay?"

 

"There go my plans for the evening," Scott joked, and Darcy hip-checked him on her way to the bathroom.

  
  


"Hey, Darcy?" Scott called through the bathroom door when he heard the water shut off. "I know you said no sexy pay-per-view, but what about regular pay-per-view?"

 

"Can you maybe wait to ask me a question until I'm not naked?" Darcy called back.

 

Scott hadn't thought of that, but now it was all he could think about. "Sure, uh.. sorry."

 

"No problem," Darcy replied. "Speaking of nakedness, would you mind handing me my bag?"

 

"Oh, yeah, I..." Scott grabbed the bag off the dresser and held it out. "Here you go."

 

The door opened a crack. Steam and an arm emerged.

 

"Thanks," Darcy said, as she hauled the bag inside. 

 

"No problem," Scott told her. "Hey, I'm... going to go grab something from the vending machine. Want anything?"

 

"Chocolate!" Darcy shouted.

 

"Got it," Scott called back.

 

Leaving the room was probably his best move. If he stayed, he probably would have ended up thinking... thoughts.

 

As it was, he put some space between them for the first time in nearly a day, and thought about other people on the way down to the lobby.

 

Dave, who looked between Scott and Darcy and laughed in disbelief.

 

Cassie, who said, "She's so pretty, Daddy! I love her! Did you know? She helped Thor save the world! Twice!"

 

Kurt, who shook his head and muttered, "You lucky bastard."

 

Paxton, who sighed and said, "She's too good for you, Lang."

 

Luis, who promised to love and cherish Darcy for the rest of her days. To take her to museums and fancy restaurants and treat her like the goddess she definitely was.

 

Maggie, who eyed him and warned, "Don't screw this up."

 

As Scott headed back down the hallway to their room, he figured it was time to admit that he might have some more-than-friendly feelings for Darcy. And maybe the reason he had to keep repeating to himself that he and Darcy  _ weren't _ in a compound word situation was that... he wanted to be.

 

They were going to share a bed, in a hotel room; when would be the best time to talk to her about it? 

 

If he brought it up and she said, "Gross, Scott, how dare you; I'm saving myself for Luis," would it mire the rest of their trip in awkwardness?

 

On the other hand, if she she said something like, "Why didn't you bring this up earlier?" then they could enjoy the fact that they were by themselves in a hotel room in California, and they could... hold hands on the plane ride home.

 

Or he could not say anything at all. They lived in the same building; he could always tell her when they got back. It would ring truer there, too; less "we might as well take advantage of this hotel room" and more "I actually like you." Plus, if she turned him down, it would be easier to avoid her there.

 

The more he thought about it, the more he liked his last idea. He would keep his hands to himself and ask Darcy out when they got back to New York.

 

"Scott?"

 

He looked up as the door to their room opened and Darcy poked her head out.

 

"You've been muttering to yourself in the hallway for like five minutes. You could've knocked if you forgot your key."

 

A quick inventory of his pockets revealed that he had, in fact, forgotten his key. "I didn't wanna... disturb. If you were changing or whatever."

 

Darcy stepped back so that he could come inside.

 

"About that," she began. "When I got out of the shower, I realized that I accidentally forgot to pack pajamas, so..."

 

She was wearing his shirt.

 

The blue-gray button up shirt that she'd picked out for him.

 

The one he had worn that day but had taken off and draped over the back of the chair while Darcy was in the shower.

 

"You're staring," she observed. "Does that mean you're gonna kill me or not? I spilled something on my dress, otherwise I'd just put it back on. And I didn't want to wear what I brought to put on tomorrow, because then it'd be all sleep-rumpled or whatever."

 

"Yeah," Scott said, finally finding his voice. "It's fine; it's not like I was gonna wear it anyway, I mean, I'll probably sleep in my, uh... my undershirt." He put a hand on his abs, where the white v-neck Hanes was keeping him decent.

 

"You sure?"

 

"Yeah, sure, fine, good, everything's all fine."

 

Darcy huffed out a laugh. "Okay. What were you saying about pay-per-view?"

 

Scott honestly could not remember. Darcy's legs were short-term memory loss-inducing.

 

"Actually, I think I should probably go to sleep," he managed to say.

 

"But it's like, ten," Darcy said. "And didn't you just go get snacks?"

 

There  _ were _ two candy bars in his hands. He offered one to the angel in the button up shirt.

 

She regarded him suspiciously. "Well, if you're going to sleep then I guess we shouldn't pay to watch anything. I've been channel surfing and I found a movie that doesn't suck. We won't be able to skip the commercials, but you can't have everything."

 

Scott watched her turn and walk over to the bed and wondered why his jaw wasn't hitting the ground so his tongue could dangle out like in an old timey cartoon.

 

"Hey, would you mind bolting the door?" Darcy called.

 

"Sure, yeah," Scott called back. He turned to do as she asked, and took a second to calm himself down.

 

He could do this. In less than twenty four hours they'd be back home, wearing clothes. (Their  _ own _ clothes.) For now this was not a compound word situation. He had no right as Darcy's friend to drool over her like he was. He took a deep breath and turned back to head into the room.

 

Darcy was sitting in bed, the covers over her legs, munching on the candy bar. It was a scene he'd seen often enough, only usually she was wearing pants and they were playing keep away with the remote control in the common room. Movie nights with the Avengers—with Darcy—were some of the best times he'd had as a full time hero.

 

And that's when he really understood. It wasn't just this trip. It was that he was finally  _ noticing _ it.

 

Scott headed over to the desk chair and plopped down into it, wondering how he could have missed how far gone he was. 

 

He was totally in love with Darcy.

 

He kept his eyes on the TV but saw nothing as he tried to think back. How long had it been? When was it that Darcy had gone from "friend" to someone indescribably precious to him?

 

Scott laughed when he realized: it was the night she'd put a frozen pizza in the oven for him because she had made that casserole that he hated. She could have said that everyone else liked it and that he should get over himself and thank her for making him any food at all, but she didn't. She made sure there was something he liked. Of course, she'd  _ said _ it was so that Tony could have an extra portion of the casserole, but it was too late. Scott was already smitten.

 

"You okay over there?"

 

He grinned at her. "Yeah. I am. I'm great."

 

"That's good to hear, because you  _ sound _ crazy," she told him. "Talking to yourself, laughing secretly... you're not going supervillain on me, are you, Lang?"

 

"If I decide to make a career change, you'll be the first to know, Darcy," he assured her.

 

"Just make sure you get the forms to me in triplicate," she said, but her smile said that she was flattered.

 

"So is this... extremely interesting and thought-provoking movie over yet?" Scott asked, turning his attention to the TV for the first time.

 

"Like you've been watching it," Darcy accused. "Sitting over there plotting."

 

"It's heroic plotting," he claimed.

 

"Uh-huh," Darcy intoned. "Care to share with the class?"

 

"Maybe I will," Scott said. "But not tonight."

 

He stood and grabbed a pillow off the bed. Darcy made a noise to object, but he gave her and her other three pillows a look. She stuck her tongue out at him, and he turned off the lamp next to him before laying down on the floor next to the bed.

 

"You were actually serious about that?" Darcy asked, as she switched off the TV.

 

"Serious about what?"

 

"Sleeping on the floor," she said, poking her head over the side. Her hair fell down around her face as Scott looked up at her.

 

"Darcy, I was in prison; I can sleep on the floor of a hotel room and still get a perfectly restful night's sleep."

 

She frowned. "What if I don't want you to?"

 

"Don't want me to what?"

 

"Sleep on the floor."

 

"Are  _ you _ going to sleep on the floor?"

 

"No, I... we can both sleep on the bed, Scott. Really. Don't think you have to take one for the team because I need the whole bed to myself. I'm not a princess, despite what Luis might say."

 

Scott laughed. "That's not why," he began.

 

"Well, good," Darcy interrupted. "Get up here. I didn't go to all the trouble of booking us a single to sleep alone."

 

She disappeared, and Scott blinked up at the ceiling where she had been only a moment before. 

 

The lamp on her side of the bed went out, and he sat up. " _ You _ booked us a single."

 

"Yup," Darcy replied, getting comfortable under the covers, her hair spread across all three of her pillows.

 

"On purpose."

 

"Mmhm."

 

Scott stood, clutching his pillow to his chest. "Why?"

 

Darcy bit her lip, which was unfair. "I was going to tell you earlier but I chickened out. But... I mean, think about it. What's the obvious reason?"

 

"Because you wanted to save money?" Scott guessed.

 

She stared at him. "Are you doing this on purpose, or do you really not know?" she asked.

 

"I'm mostly waiting for you to say so I don't make a fool of myself," he confessed.

 

She sat up and pointed an accusatory finger at him. "That's rude," she huffed. "That's what  _ I'm _ trying to do. Quit stealing my game."

 

"I guess we're at an impasse, then," Scott observed.

 

"I guess we are," Darcy agreed.

 

"I guess we should go to sleep."

 

"I guess so."

 

Scott held her gaze as he slowly sat down on the floor, then lowered his head until he could no longer see her annoyed but amused face.

 

Thirty seconds of complete silence passed.

 

"Okay, but like, you  _ do _ understand what I'm trying to say, here, don't you?" Darcy asked. "Because if I came all the way to California like an idiot, and I'm still just 'a girl, and your friend, but it's not a compound word situation,' then I'm  _ really _ going to feel stupid."

 

Scott sat up. "'Compound word situation,'" he repeated. "Where'd you hear that? Because I thought I'd only been  _ thinking _ that, not saying it out loud."

 

"No, you did say it out loud. Like four or eight times. Like it's your mantra or something. Which is fine, if we're just friends, that's cool, but I... want you to know that I'd be... more than okay, if we were, uh..."

 

"Were what?"

 

"In a compound word situation," Darcy confessed.

 

"You... want to be my girlfriend," Scott realized. "My actual girlfriend."

 

"No," Darcy said. "I want  _ you _ to be  _ my _ boyfriend. I'm still going to marry Luis.  _ Waffles _ , Scott."

 

Scott laughed and launched himself across the bed, pulling Darcy close. She screeched with laughter, then surrendered to his kiss, reaching up to rake her fingernails through his hair.

 

It was everything Scott never knew he always wanted.

 

"Did you plan the shirt thing?" he asked when they parted.

 

"No, that was just a happy accident; I genuinely forgot to pack pajamas." She frowned. "Or maybe it was a subconscious thing... either way, it was fun to watch your brain short-circuit."

 

" _ Now _ who's going supervillain?" he asked.

 

Darcy grinned proudly. "It worked, though."

 

"It didn't," Scott told her. "I really was going to sleep on the floor. I'd be there right now if you hadn't said anything. I mean... I was going to ask you out once we got back to New York, but..."

 

"But then we'd have missed the chance to spend our first night together unhindered by Avengers team gossip."

 

"Together..." Scott echoed.

 

"Really?" Darcy asked, kissing him again. "I'd have thought you would be focusing on the 'spend the night' part."

 

"We can't," Scott said.

 

"Why not?" Darcy asked, her eyes widening with worry.

 

"Until," Scott continued, "we get something straight."

 

Darcy looked relieved.

 

"You're a girl, and you're my friend," he said. "But I definitely also want you to be my girlfriend."

 

"Done, Lang," Darcy said, and put her hand out to shake.

 

Scott extracted his arm from around Darcy and shook her hand.

 

"Right. Now that we've got that all sorted out, we really should go to sleep," Darcy sighed. "We do have a plane to catch tomorrow."

 

Scott nodded. "I couldn’t agree more."

 

He stood to kick his pants off, then slid into bed next to her. She allowed him a portion of the covers, but still took three pillows for her own.

 

"Goodnight, Darcy," Scott said.

 

"Goodnight, Scott," Darcy yawned.

 

Scott closed his eyes, intent on taking sleep as soon as it would come.

 

It didn't.

 

Darcy did, though.

**Author's Note:**

> [Prompt a Three Things fic!](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7S2MbkK0CxVHMG3kF8CD6fYqD0zwY-J6MqLb21nmFyRpE4w/viewform)
> 
> [Reblog on tumblr](http://catrinasl.tumblr.com/post/172110655938/compound-word-situation)
> 
> Tumblr: [catrinasl](http://catrinasl.tumblr.com)
> 
> Twitter: [@Catrina_SL](http://twitter.com/Catrina_SL)


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